A study conducted on tissue samples and cultured cells demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 can efficiently infect human conjunctival epithelial cells, eliciting innate immune response.
“We were also able to demonstrate that the beta variant of concern replicates more and induces a much higher inflammatory response,” Ashok Kumar, PhD, told Healio/OSN.
Kumar, an associate professor of ophthalmology, visual and anatomical sciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, has a specific research interest in infectious diseases that affect the eye. In a previous paper, he and his